


Another Ray of Hope

by indigojodie1220



Category: Marvel (Comics), Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-22
Updated: 2016-02-22
Packaged: 2018-05-22 16:50:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6087300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indigojodie1220/pseuds/indigojodie1220
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU mash-up where Marvel's Rachel Summers, wielding the Phoenix Force, finds herself teleported out of the Mojoverse and into the Star Wars realms. This is a very short sketch/draft, and I'm curious if it's something that would work (technically, it could happen, what with both products being owned by Disney o.0)<br/>Rachel is this alternate universes version of Rey (Ray), and the First Order gets their hands on her before she can be drawn to the light - not so hard considering the life she left behind her in the Mojoverse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Rough draft

(Rachel manages to break the choke-hold Mojo has on her in the Mojoverse and she attacks Spiral; Spiral makes a game of it and teleports across the Mojoverse’s various sound stages with Rachel in tow, not surprisingly to increased ratings. Finally, Rachel interrupts Spiral mid-cast, and the spell goes off wrong - they end up in an alternate universe)

Rachel and Spiral pop out of thin air, mid-battle, on the StarKiller base hangar bay - they are both covered in pink ectoplasm(a by-product of Spirals teleportation spell), which dissipates after a few moments. Stormtroopers, General Hux, and Kylo Ren witness their fight, momentarily stunned by the unexpected appearance of the two. Kylo Ren mentally halts the actions of the troopers and observes the fighting women - the women are oblivious to their surroundings at first.

It’s a losing battle - Rachel is weak and disoriented, Spiral is simply too strong. Spiral inflicts small wounds from her many swords. Rachel manages to knock one of the swords out of Spirals grasp - she tries to pick it up and is electrocuted. Spiral laughs and taunts her - “Silly Starling, Spirals blades answer only to her!” Enraged, Rachel lunges at her and catches her off guard. She tears one of the witches bionic arms off, still wielding a sword, and runs her through with it. It happens so fast, Spiral is stunned and blasts Racel w/a spell, hurling her away. She begins to laugh and cough maniacally, spitting up blood. Dazed, Rachel watches as Spiral starts to cast the spell that will teleport her out and hurls a TIE fighter at her. It is anchored to the ground and never connects. Hux orders the troopers to attack at this cascading display of power. Kylo Ren feels something akin to Force manipulation from Rachel when she moves the TIE fighter and is about to intercede at the same time Hux gives the orders to attack. Spiral remarks they have drawn attention to themselves and bids Rachel farewell as she prepares to teleport out by way of elaborate dance moves, noticing that her other arms are holding the severed one in place for the spell to work. Her image glows white-hot and “pops” out, leaving a small drop of pink ectoplasm in her place. Rachel screams in raw frustration, “DON’T LEAVE ME!” and pours out power in the shape of the Phoenix corona. Kylo Ren attacks her with the Force, knocking her unconscious before she can do anymore damage.

Rachel is taken to an interrogation cell and strapped to a metal table, bound at the wrists and ankles. She is still unconscious. Her “hound” costume (red w/spikes) is torn open along her torso, just under the left breast and down the left thigh, as well as her right shoulder. It is clear she is injured - bloody cuts, scraps, perhaps a couple of bruised or even broken ribs. Her hair is scraggly, cut off completely on one side of her head, large patches of hair missing on the other side. One eye is blackened, and her bottom lip is swollen.

Display monitors are analyzing her autonomic functions as well as her DNA - there is an image of the double helix clearly displaying the extra chromosome that marks her as a mutant.

Kylo Ren sits in a darkened corner in his Knight of Ren kit, wearing his helmet. He is openly reading her unconscious mind, but finds it broken and jumbled. It is obvious she has been mind-wiped, multiple times. He does not understand her memories. Unsatisfied w/what he finds, he uses his Force telepathy to wake her. She wakes w/a start, realizes she is bound, and struggles panickedly. Her mind feels heavy, foggy, and it takes a moment before she remembers to use her telekinesis on the bonds - only she can’t focus. It is still another moment before she senses the other presence in the room. Kylo Ren leans forward out of the darkness, elbows resting on his knees, hands steepled before him. In a low, deep voice, clearly synthesized, he says, “<drug name> \- it inhibits the trigger to your unique abilities.”

Rachel struggles to focus, but it’s no use. She slams her head back onto the table, sobs and asks in a hoarse whisper, “Are you real?!” before the various sensors monitoring her start to go off, indicating she’s in cardiac arrest. Once again Kylo Ren uses the Force to render her unconscious.

Kylo Ren goes to Snoke for guidance. Snoke wants to see the girl, but Kylo Ren advises against it, stating that she is in no condition to be moved. He relays all he’s learned about her from the battle in the hangar bay, to what he was able to glean from her mind. They discuss her power, that it is and isn’t part of the Force; they discuss how best to use her for their own ends. Snoke finally orders Kylo Ren to seduce her to their side - whatever it takes. “Make her one of us,” says Snoke’s fading hologram.

When Rachel wakes again, she is more calm - her mind still feels heavy - and she realizes she is incapable of feeling emotion. Some kind of tranquilizer. She notices too she is no longer strapped to a table, but finds herself instead laying in a bed. She is still in her ripped up hound costume, but her wounds seem to be healed. Impassively, she surveys her surroundings - the room is pristinely clean and orderly. Everything is black - including the bedding she finds herself in - the floors are shiny black metal, the plush rugs also black; the furniture is simple, but elegant - and also black - with glass and metal accents; the walls are paneled in the same material as the floor, and the lights are dim. There are no adornments - no decorations. The room is functional. There is a doorway that leads out, but the room beyond - predictably - is “black”. Dark, to be more accurate, but she had no doubt it would also be furnished in black.

A voice greets her from one of the dark corners, and in her tranquil state, she only flinches and backs away from the voice. A deep, sonorous voice - human, not synthesized this time, says, “You are my guest - you are safe here, for now.” Kylo Ren steps forward out of the darkness and Rachel gets her first look at the man. <describe Kylo Ren>.

She turns away from him and brushes some of the scraggles of hair from her face, her eyes searching the room. She asks again, in a more steady, flat tone, “Are you real?”

Kylo Ren looks puzzled as he steps forward, “You keep asking that -”

Rachel flinches away from his advance, practically crawling up the wall.

Kylo Ren halts and purses his lips, his brow furrowed. He says curtly, “I said you were my guest.” He exhales and smoothes his features, keeping his voice even and non-threatening he says, “As long as you accept my hospitality, you are safe. Do you understand?”

Rachel stares back at him with watery eyes - she wants to be angry, she want’s to be scared - she wants to tear the room apart with her powers and get out of there - but she’s so heavily sedated, her tongue feels thick, and she slurs, “I’m done. I won’t play your game anymore - “

“This is not a game!” Kylo Ren cuts her off. Faster than she can register he’s on her. He grips her by the arms and lifts her off the bed, off the ground. He shakes her to drive home his point, and tries once more, in vain, to pierce her mind and make sense of her clouded memories. Rachel is still not able to react but for the faintest widening of her eyes, helpless against the mental onslaught.

Kylo Ren pushes her back onto the bed and runs his gloved hands through his hair, collecting himself. He presses an unseen control panel on the wall behind him and a display monitor pops up - he punches in a command, and the video feed of her fighting Spiral on the hangar bay plays out. For the first time, real emotion surfaces. Kylo Ren can see as well as sense it - anger. Rage. The display screen shatters in a spiderweb pattern, frozen on the visual of Spiral’s fist connecting with Rachel’s face before going dark. Rachel’s hands clench into fists and the strain is visible. A sheen of sweat glitters on her brow. Kylo Ren raises an eyebrow - this may not be as difficult as he thought.

They stare at each other in silence. Finally, Kylo Ren speaks. “There are clothes on the bed, and facilities there,” he points first to the clothes, then indicates what Rachel can only assume is a bathroom behind a panel similar to the one that revealed the video monitor, “go clean up, then join me in the other room.”

Rachel reaches over and grabs the neatly folded pile of clothes. She gets up slowly and takes her first halting steps toward the restroom. She can’t help but think, “If this isn’t another sound stage, if this is real, then...where am I? What is to become of me?” She fought so hard to flee the Mojoverse - had she escaped the frying pan only to jump into the fire? All her instincts told her this man wasn’t all he seemed. She would have to be wary, but first, she would have to sober up - get the drugs out of her system - and that meant making him trust her. If she could feel, she would have bit back the disgust at what she would need to become in the ensuing days - maybe months - to gain the man’s trust. She paused in the doorway and said over her shoulder, “My name is Rachel, but people call me Ray.”

 

 

 

 

 

 


	2. Real

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rachel struggles to reconcile her new reality while Kylo Ren plots to further her path toward Dark Side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You'll note this is chapter "Two" - at some point, the "draft" will become chapter One. I like mash-ups, and I like character development - don't know if this will go anywhere, but I like the interactions. Feel free to leave suggestions etc, but please be kind! I do not claim to be any sort of writer at all!

Two

Kylo Ren paced back and forth in the small sitting room, barely able to take 2 strides before having to turn back again. There was nothing but silence from the small facilities room off the bedchamber where the girl called Rachel -  _ Ray _ \- had disappeared to. After what seemed like several moments, the familiar sound of running water filled the small living quarters, and Kylo Ren relaxed. He sat down in one of the low leather chairs, waiting for her to finish her ministrations. He resisted the urge to probe her mind - he’d already learned as much as he was going to, which wasn’t much. His mental probes, as well as the medical scans, had revealed she’d been mind wiped, several times in fact. There were some scattered, residual memories, but only fragments, and they made no sense. He had not even been able to glean her name in his sweep - didn’t learn what it was until she had told him moments ago. Her mind painted a tableau of pain and torture, imprisonment, fear, and despair. She was utterly and completely broken, both mentally and physically, and balanced precariously on the edge of sanity. Kylo Ren was poised to tip that balance in favor of the First Order. He would have to tread carefully.

 

Time ticked on and Kylo Ren soon found himself impatiently drumming his fingers on the arm of the chair. It’s not that he worried Rachel would escape - where would she go? They were in space! Neither was he worried she would hurt herself (or him, for that matter) as he had ensured there were no implements that could double as a weapons - although, after seeing her tear the arm off her adversary earlier, and then beat her with it, he had no doubt she was resourceful. Rather, he was simply eager to talk to her - to fill in the gaps clearly missing from her memories.

 

After what seemed like an eternity, the running water stopped, and movement could be heard coming from the small facilities room. Another several agonizing moments after that, the door “whooshed” open. Kylo Ren stiffened in his seat, striking a rigid, imperious posture, and waited for the young woman to enter the room.

 

Two and Half

Rachel was not the least bit surprised that the small bathroom was, like everything else, black, with metal and glass accents. There were no windows. She used the term “bathroom” loosely, as it was unlike any bathroom she had ever seen. She set the pile of clothes down on a sleek black cylinder - what she could only surmise was the “toilet”, although she hadn’t the faintest idea how to operate it. It also appeared to be locked, as evidenced by a metal clamp on one side. A quick survey of the room revealed several small holes in the ceiling and on one wall - the “shower”. She wondered briefly if it used water, like the showers she was most accustomed to, or steam, or even sonic vibrations. There was a control panel with pictographs on the wall, and she thanked the powers that be that the sign for water was universal, as apparently were the colors for “hot” and “cold”. Upon further inspection, she realized it was an all-in-one unit: soap, mouthwash, shave cream (it was cream that literally shaved), and many more. As an afterthought, she noticed the drain cover in the center of the floor.

 

She took a moment to examine the pile of clothes - they too, surprise surprise surprise, were black. There were several pieces, including a halter style dress, a half tank top, leggings, something that could either have been a scarf, shawl, cape, or blanket, and she didn’t know if they were meant to all be worn together, or separately. There were two pairs of footware - sandals, and simple slip-ons akin to ballet slippers. There were not, as far as she could tell, any undergarments. She made made a face at that prospect, and then realized that she’d gone commando in her current uniform for as long as she could remember, and concluded it wasn’t a such a big deal after all - it wasn’t as though she had much to support up top, anyway.

 

There was a small round mirror backlit by stark white lights that made her wan complexion that much more pale. She frowned at her reflection. There were dark circles under eyes - when had she last slept -  _ real, honest _ REM sleep? Her hair, usually buzz cut down to her scalp, had started to grow in, but just as it had reached a length that made her feel almost human - almost  _ female _ \- her captors on Mojoworld shaved it off again (this last time on one side only). She noticed, with dismay, that the small roots coming in, all but imperceptible were - inexplicably - white. 

 

“Say what?” she mouthed to her reflection, turning her head this way and that to get a better angle. Despite the inhibitor drug and heavy tranq used on her, she  _ had _ been able to focus her telekinesis enough earlier to smash the video display. She channeled that focus once again through extreme force of will to telepathically stimulate her hair follicles, and grow her hair out. Usually this kind of thing took no effort at all, and she would do it when she was feeling particularly rebellious - which usually lead to her being dragged away by the new hair to have it promptly shaved off. This time, however, she gasped audibly at the effort, a sheen of sweat breaking out over her body. She gasped again at her reflection in the mirror. Her fiery red locks - a trademark among the women in her family - had turned silvery white. She put her hand on the mirror, still looking in disbelief. She had grown her hair out just below her shoulders, and only the very tips now showed any sign of her previous color. She felt crestfallen - like, the last vestiges of whoever she had been before were slipping away. She sobbed heavily, and slammed her fist down on the metallic shelf below the mirror. 

 

Realizing that the man in black was waiting for her, expecting her to be clean and presentable, she wiped her tears away and pressed the button for hot water. Show time.

 

Three

Rachel chose the black dress - it offered the most cover, and was the easiest to get into. The materiel was some kind of silk, and was soft and lightweight. The simple halter top tied around the neck, a drawstring cinched at the waist, and the rest hung loosely several inches past her feet - clearly made for someone much taller. It was slit obscenely high up the front of both legs, but there was so much fabric, she wasn’t too worried about revealing anything - which was everything, actually, since as she noted before, there were no undergarments. Neither of the pairs of shoes fit - they were simply too big to stay on her feet.  _ “Sigh,”  _ she thought. She couldn’t find anything to dry her hair with, and so it hung mostly wet, though not dripping, across her left shoulder. 

 

She padded barefoot between the two rooms small rooms and lingered a moment in the doorway to the sitting room. She found the dark stranger waiting for her, seated in the dimly lit room. He looked at her curiously, head cocked slightly to the side.

 

“You’ve changed your hair,” he said flatly. His voice was low and sonorous, and completely devoid of emotion.

 

Rachel smoothed a hand through her newly grown hair, but didn’t say anything by way of explanation. She sat down across from the stranger, the chair a twin of his own, and watched him warily. The man spoke first.

 

“We both know there’s no sense interrogating you,” he bared his teeth in what was most definitely not a smile, “there is nothing you can tell me I haven’t already seen,” he tapped a black gloved index finger pointedly at his temple. Rachel hunched her shoulders and suppressed a shudder at the thought of him poking around in her head while she was unconscious. Kylo Ren leaned back in his chair, relaxing slightly, a smirk playing at the corner of his mouth. “You may ask me anything -” he started to offer, but Rachel cut him off. 

 

“Are you real?” she asked for the third time, her voice pleading. Kylo Ren was beginning to wonder if those were the only words she could say. 

 

He forced down the building annoyance at this incessant question and leaned forward, elbows on his knees, forefinger and thumbs steepled in the shape of a diamond. He took an audible breath, his face thoughtful, trying a different tack. “Tell me”, he asked, “if I  _ weren’t _  real, why would I ever tell you?” He met her gaze and smiled teasingly, “What could possibly convince you I was real?”

 

Abruptly, Rachel reached out toward him - he was only an arm’s length away. Kylo Ren’s face darkened. He leaned back from her and put a hand up to block her. Her eyes pleaded with him, and he didn’t need his Force-given insight to know in that moment, she desperately needed him to be “real”. He slowly lowered his hand and leaned back in toward her.

 

Rachel cupped his cheek in her hand, and for the second time that night, her body was wracked by heaving sobs. The flesh under her hand was warm and alive, not like the leathery constructs that passed for “human” on Mojoworld. Created by the scientists to be slaves to the Spineless Ones, they weren’t  _ real  _ \- they didn’t feel pain, they had no real emotions - they were empty husks, built to serve and be servile.  _ He _ was real, though. This - this was  _ all _ real. It meant she had truly done it, she had got away - she was  _ free _ . She held his face in both her hands and continued to both sob and laugh like a child. 

 

Kylo Ren wasn’t sure what to make of all this, but he let it play out. Of course he was “real”. If touching his face was all it took to convince her, who was he to argue. With that nonsense out of the out of the way, the path was clear to begin the work Snoke set before him - turning Rachel to their cause; to the Dark Side.


End file.
